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In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the bigwigs of this club, about 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group controls the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their top stock picks, we have determined a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 25 percentage points in 6.5 month (check out a sample of our picks).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ).

Hedge fund activity in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ)

In preparation for this year, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 6% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Paulson & Co, managed by John Paulson, holds the most valuable position in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ). Paulson & Co has a $56 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by John Burbank of Passport Capital, with a $21 million position; 0% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedgies that hold long positions include John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have jumped into Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the largest position in Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ). Renaissance Technologies had 1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital also initiated a $1 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new BZ position is Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

What have insiders been doing with Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time period, Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the results shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Boise Inc. (NYSE:BZ) is an important part of this process.